Food Party

Peas & Crayons hosts a link party called "What I Ate Wednesday"
and today is my first day participating.

Naturally I didn't remember to take pictures all day at work ,
so I only have my dinner tonight.

I took this photo of my dinner after I ate.
Yes, that's right - I forgot.
But still, this is the leftover won-ton soup I had.

It was only 15 minutes later!
It is in a bowl that I painted at my local Color-Me-Mine studio.
That is a rooster in the bottom of the bowl.

I had a salad.
It really looked this good even though I didn't take this photo, lol.

Its from "free clips" from Microsoft.

And we ate Italian bread with our dinner.
Slathered with butter. My photo again.

Did I tell you I started a diet with a team of people from my office?

I can say to my credit that when I was buying the bread I walked RIGHT BY the buy one-get one free Entenmann's display of chocolate donuts.

Finally, while I did have a cup of coffee this morning, for the remainder of the day I drank tea. I usually drink tea but at work the coffee scent just wafts out of the break room, which is right by my office. With tea I don't use cream or sugar.
Okay, sometimes one sugar or two if I want to feel like I'm snacking,
but not usually 'cause I just like it plain.

So that is my "What I Ate Wednesday" contribution!

I'm hoping this will make me become more aware of what I'm eating and its affect on me.

I'm also hoping this will make me watch what I EAT!! ;-)

Click on over to the party and join in!

I hope you get to do something creative today!

My first GIVE-AWAY!!

Hi everyone! When I saw that my friend list was up over 20, I started thinking about the possibility of doing a giveaway if I ever reached 25.

Well I did and I am!

In order to get a chance to win:

• You must publicly follow my blog

AND

• You need to leave a comment below

Winter keeps teasing us that it is winding down,
but we all still need to keep warm, so...

The winner will receive an Infinity Scarf, a Coffee Sleeve, and a $5.00 Starbucks Gift Card. You will need to let me know if you have a color preference for your scarf.

Click on the picture of my daughter (above)
to see the inspiration for my Infinity Scarf!


The Give-Away ends Thursday night at 8pm.
After that I will post the randomly chosen winner!

I am so excited to do this, I hope you are, too!

I also hope you get the chance to be creative today!

Infinity Scarf Inspiration

Two weeks ago I was on Simply Step Back, a terrific website that *ALWAYS* has inspiring ideas. On this particular day, Sarah, the blogger, was showcasing scarf tutorials that she loved. I love scarves so I quickly followed each link. Here is Sarah's blog:

I immediately fell in love with the Infinity Scarf. I have a knitted Infinity Scarf but never thought to make one out of fabric. Let me tell you, it is simple and beautiful.

photo from H is for Handmade

The photo at the top shows one of my daughters wearing the first one I made. She came home from college to visit and quickly claimed it as hers (and there went that black Pashmina, too, I wonder if that went with her...)

Since then I've made several more, as the rest of the girls in the family share them with me!

You can find the tutorial on this site:

>
Amy at H is for Handmade gives simple instructions for this so I don't need to redo her great post. Just follow along on her site and you will have it done in just a few minutes.

I hope you get the chance to be creative today!

~Check Monday's post for my first Give-Away~

Kids in the Kitchen - No Cook S'mores

One of the things our family loves to do is camp.

We don't get to do it enough.

However, I learned a secret recipe.
This recipe makes everyone feel they are by a campfire.
Even when it is cold and they are sleeping in front of the TV.

Graham Crackers

Store-bought Fudge Frosting
Marshmallow Fluff

See how simple it is?

Instead of cooking marshmallows over your stove, you just buy a jar of fluff, spread it on one graham cracker square. Then you spread the chocolate frosting over the other graham cracker square. Put them together, and you have an easy to make, no bake, S'more!

Now maybe you should take a big blanket and cover your kitchen table with it while you enjoy your S'mores. Then you could really feel like you were camping!

I hope you get the chance to be creative today!

Muddy, not funky.

You can see I've still been working on my web design!

Today I want to share a story.

Tonight after work I had to schedule my evening so that my kids had rides to their activities, everyone could eat, and my husband could sleep.

When I arrived home, I didn't change my clothes because I was leaving to go out. While my husband was already in his sweats ready for bed, he really wanted to eat with the family. He was too tired to make dinner so I pulled out some items and popped them together and put them in the oven. While doing this I spoke on the phone to my sister-in-law. Hubby pulled a mini-pizza out of the freezer for one of the kids who was leaving early. Once the dinner was in the oven, I told him I wanted to go down to check my email. He then volunteered to drive that child to her event. Great! I checked my email, set the table, and when he returned, the rest of us ate together.

Still dressed from work in my heels and good clothes, I went to the bathroom to freshen up. I freshened up my makeup, my deoderant, and my perfume. I map-quested the location to which I was going.

I was getting all dolled up, heading off to this meeting. I was so careful to use hair spray and not drink any coffee and make sure my clothes were nice.

Well, fast forward to my arrival. I pulled up to the house, got out of the car,

stepped onto the grass, and promptly fell on my FACE!

When I greeted everyone inside the house, I brushed off my pantlegs and their dog stayed by my side sniffing the dirt clods. They asked me how I was and I said I had forgotten how much I loved the spring, and their yard smelled really good.

It smelled like spring!

Maybe the groundhog was right this year.

(but I'm still looking for it!)

I hope you get the chance to be creative today!

Photoshop is not so simple!

I'm keeping this short today because I'm exhausted.

I have only 3 days left of my free Photoshop trial!


As you can see, I finally made a change to my background, though I am still going to change it up again. I would really love to buy Photoshop, but its too expensive.

So if anyone out there knows of a similar program that is either FREE (yay) or very inexpensive, let me know.


I was creative today with my Photoshop program!
I'm going to sleep like a log tonight.

I really do hope you get the chance to be creative today!

Bracelets DuJour: Tutorial

Can Tab Bracelets

We collect Can Tabs at our house. We don't drink a lot of drinks from cans, but when we do, we try to save them. Our schools collect them for a local Ronald McDonald House.

Today I was at a Hallmark Store shopping for a birthday gift, and I spotted a Can Tab Bracelet for sale. I couldn't believe it! It occurred to me that I had never made these before but I wondered how hard it could be. NOT HARD AT ALL, apparently.

I made two and I will show them both here. The tutorial is easier to see using the elastic thread, so you'll see that first.


You will need to cut off about 2 feet of string and 20 to 25 Can Tabs - washed clean.

Take your first Tab and thread the string through the top and bottom holes. I tied it so that it would be easier to manage, making the Can Tab on the end immovable.


Take your second Tab and, keeping the rough side together with the rough side of the first Tab, thread the string through that one.


Then, alternating sides and overlapping (like brickwork), you need to add another Tab. See how I have the lower Tab, rough facing up, and the top Tab (rough down) is sort of off to the side? That is where the next Tab will go.

Place it rough side down next to the top Tab. Then, cross feed the string, like you thread a sneaker. Making an X.


Then you just keep doing it...

I found a random green Can Tab. How cool! I have no idea what it is from...


And then I had some interference...

He really wanted to play! I was holding the Tab chain for a picture.

Then it looks like this:

And this:

Then I made the one with the blue ribbon. Make sure you leave enough ribbon (at LEAST 2 and a half feet) because the ribbon is not stretchy like the elastic string used in the first one.



I hope you give these a try. They are so simple - Using my phone, I took photos of the ones at the store and was able to make them myself. Though they used a different material (wire, it looked like, wrapped instead of crossed) they look similar. My teenagers love them. The ones I saw at the Hallmark Store had a bead attached to them, so maybe I'll try that next.

The parties I'm linking to are below, so go check them out! I am going to indulge myself Wednesday night and take over the computer just so I can go and see what fun things everyone is making.

I hope you get the chance to be creative today!